"As Research In Motion Ltd. executives prepared early this year for the launch of their first tablet, the PlayBook, one big question loomed: Who was the device for?," Phred Dvorak, Suzanne Vranica and Spencer E. Ante report for The Wall Street Journal. "Some executives… saw the gadget as an extension of the BlackBerry, long favored by corporations and business people. Others were pushing for more focus on ordinary consumers, people eager for games, music and movies, according to executives close to the company."
"'There's an internal war going on around the marketing message. Even the guys at the top don't agree,' one executive close to the company said at the time," Dvorak, Vranica and Ante report. "The split showed through in a campaign RIM planned with its ad agency. It envisioned using humor and celebrities like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady—but also the tagline 'Go Pro'—said two people familiar with the situation. By the time the PlayBook went on sale in April, both the campaign and the agency had been canned, and RIM's marketing chief and several of his deputies had left… [PlayBook] is threatening to be one of RIM's biggest flops at a time when the company is reeling from a series of profit warnings, product delays, declining BlackBerry shipments and a tumbling stock."
"The marketing muddle shows one of the biggest problems facing RIM: In a market increasingly driven by the wishes of the retail consumer, its executives have struggled to wean the company from its heavy corporate focus… Late last year, Leo Burnett and RIM parted ways. RIM then hired 72 and Sunny, a small California ad agency," Dvorak, Vranica and Ante report. "Its first job: a campaign for the soon-to-be-launched PlayBook… The new ad agency held weekly meetings with RIM officials. It "presented hundreds of ideas and spent months having work rejected," says one person familiar with the matter. In early February, Mr. Pardy resigned as RIM's chief marketing officer. RIM fired the 72 and Sunny ad agency—just a month before the PlayBook rollout, according to two people familiar with the situation."
Dvorak, Vranica and Ante report, "On April 14, RIM held a launch event in New York. Some early reviews of the tablet had been scathing, especially about the inability to read email on the device without tethering it to a BlackBerry. Journalists, analysts and customers gathered around a stage expecting a news conference by [half-CEOs] Messrs. Balsillie and Lazaridis. At the last minute, RIM said the two wouldn't take the stage."
Tons more in the full, huge article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]
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